Author Archive for Jason McNair – Page 2

Using Instagram in Your Group

socialmediacloudsWHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? We are a visual generation.  Everyone loves pictures and the growth of Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, and so many other video and photo sharing sites are proof that pictures and videos help get a message across. Whether or not all those messages are worth sharing is up for debate.  With the growth of any social media industry comes danger and we must be cautious in how we embrace new media sharing technologies.

We have a message worth sharing.  Week after week, group leaders connect group members to each other and to the timeless message of the truths found in God’s word.  It’s time to redeem Instagram and help connect your group members together by presenting a message worth sharing with the world.

WHAT DO I DO? In a another post, I shared about the importance of creating a closed Facebook group for your group members.  As a group leader, you can link your Instagram posts to this group to help get the message out in creative ways. Remember to make these images and videos “public” if you want them shared beyond your group.

  1. Make a selfie invite video for your next group session: You may not like selfies, but in time, you will get comfortable with it. You only have 15 seconds, so make it short and to the point.
  2. Create an image teaser post about an upcoming event: Connecting your group outside of meeting times is a great way to build community within your group.
  3. Post a creative image of the main point or scripture passage from your lesson: Instagram has filters and the ability to add text to your graphic to get your point across.
  4. Use it to posts icebreaker questions that relate (or don’t relate) to your next lesson topic: Use comments below your question during your teaching time to provide personal illustrations.

What would you add to this list? Use the comment section below or on our Sunday School Leader Facebook page to posts your additional tips and ideas.

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Jason McNair is the Strengthening Churches Missionary for Utah Idaho Southern Baptist Convention. He also coordinates most of the social media promotion for this blog, sundayschoolleader.com.

 

Is Social Media Useful for Reaching People in Your Group?

facebookWHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? We all want connection.  People inside and outside your group use Social Media every day, trying to find connection with one another.  That is why it is a multibillion dollar industry.  We all want to connect people together and to information we find important.

In fact, you are probably reading this blog article because some form of social media directed you here.  You were sent an email, saw a tweet, or read a post and you clicked it hoping to find a potential solution to a challenge you are experiencing in your group ministry leadership right now.

WHAT DO I DO? Social Media is just what it says it is. Media is information or data. It is anything we speak, hear, do, see, share, or experience that passes along information.  Social is simply the way that media travels, relationally from person to person.  Isn’t that what we are about in our groups ministries: Connecting Socially to share the most important Media known to man, the gospel of Jesus Christ, with those who need to hear it?

Here are a few ways you can use Social Media to reach people in your group:

  • Start closed Facebook groups for all the classes and groups in your church.
  • Use your posting and sharing as a source of encouragement by avoiding negativity on your feed.
  • Share articles and blogs that encourage your group members to think through topics discussed in your group.
  • Be open to ideas that may seem contradictory to your way of thinking, and be prepared to civilly discuss these concerns with compassion and reverence (1 Peter 3:15)
  • Use your social pages and groups to promote community events where group members can connect beyond the group time.
  • Practice typing your Christian testimony in 140 characters or less.

For more information on this topic with additional links to resources, visit:
http://www.smallgroups.com/articles/2015/4-ways-you-can-use-social-media-for-good.html

Stage 3: Draft Day

Develop1I do not remember the (military) draft.  I was too young.  As David Francis points out in his book, Countdown, he was one of the last of a generation who understood what it meant to be “Drafted” into service.  To my generation, being drafted meant you were going to play a professional sport for a team you did not apply for, but you did the training and preparation to get you to a point where some team wanted you and you made yourself available for them to stake a claim on your services by drafting you on their team.

In Flake’s formula, the third part of the process is to “Enlist and Train Leaders”.  In David and Rick’s reimagining of that formula into 5 “D” stages, they are calling this stage “Develop”.  As existing leaders in Small Groups and Sunday Schools, it is our responsibility to be seeking people to pour into and develop as leaders from among those members of our groups.  We are the best recruiters because we spend the most time with them.  As we lead, we need to be intentional about providing leadership opportunities within our group and resist the temptation to do all the leading ourselves.

In my role on the State Missionary staff, I frequently have to miss leading my Sunday School class on Sunday mornings.  If I did nothing to develop leaders from within my class, there would be no one to fill my teaching role when I go on the road to preach at a different church within my state.  I have to be intentional to develop leaders from within my organization.

When the time comes to launch a new class, there already is a “draft pool” of potential workers that have been intentionally trained and enlisted to take on trial leadership responsibility and given the opportunities to have hands on experience leading a class or group within the safety of their own peers.  These group leaders are developed in the context of existing small groups to be drafted into leadership of new Sunday School and Small Group units.

This system of developing and drafting new leaders works, but church leaders have to be intentional about putting it into practice and provide training opportunities for these future leaders on an ongoing basis.  Look for ways to incorporate leadership development within the context of your Sunday School and Small Group organization.  It will make a world of difference. Here are some ways you can develop leaders:

  • Subscribe to Sunday School and Small Group Leader blogs (like this one)
  • Encourage outside reading by class members and suggest books that develop leadership skills
  • Visit com and seek training videos on leadership you can share with members
  • Begin a Facebook Group for potential leaders and frequently share tips and articles you find interesting related to leadership development.
  • Meet regularly during the week with members who show leadership potential over a meal or coffee breaks.

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Jason McNair (@jason_mcnair) is the State Missionary for Strengthening Churches with the Utah Idaho Southern Baptist Convention.  When he is not handing leadership over to one of his classmates, he leads a Median Adult Sunday School class at First Baptist Church of West Valley City, UT.

Day 30-Leadership Requests

prayer-room-symbol-braille-sign-sb-0358In the book 3 Roles for Guiding Groups, David Francis shares that, when he served as a church education director, his greatest tool used in identifying potential leaders was PRAYER.  He used to utilize a closet sized room on the third floor of his education building as a prayer/study room.  Contained in that room was simply a desk, chair, church directory, printout of all members, and stacks of index cards with cut-up photos of church members from old directories, newsletters, and new member photo shots.  These simple tools allowed David to take his leadership requests/needs to God and allow him to discern from these lists of names potential leaders whom God may be preparing, through his Holy Spirit, to be used in leadership.

Flash forward to 2014.  This same tool is available to us as leaders.  We serve the same God who still answers the prayers of leaders who seek His guidance in finding where He is working in the hearts and lives of your church members (and potential members).  Our methods have changed with technology advances, but prayer still works.  We may not have a stack of index cards with cutout photos, but we do have membership databases, Twitter™ streams, Facebook™ profiles, and “prayer rooms”.  We have the ability to gain near instant access to libraries of data on the likes and dislikes of nearly everyone who attends our church.  Without going as far as being cyber-stalkers, we can easily make a connection with members of our church and lift them up in prayer, allowing the Holy Spirit to work His way into the heart of these potential leaders.

David shared how, when he asked God to reveal leaders to him, He did!  He ALWAYS did!  Were people always obedient?  Unfortunately no, and sometimes he didn’t discern His will perfectly, but the more time he spent praying, the better he got.

So if you are in a leadership vacuum needing more leaders, let the Holy Spirit know your need and allow Him to work in specific people whom you identify.  Always be open to add names to your prayer list when God brings them to your mind and when you meet them face to face.  God answers prayer, AND we need to be open to SEE those answers when they happen.  We still need to do the work, but our most powerful tool is still PRAYER.

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JasonMcNair

 

Jason McNair
Strengthening Churches Missionary for Utah Idaho Southern Baptist Convention
@jason_mcnair
fb.me/jason.mcnair

Day 15-Shepherd Recruiting

Sheep Help WantedWanted: Shepherd
Job Description: Care and protect a flock of stinky, undisciplined, ungrateful and stubborn sheep. Must be willing to risk life and limbs to keep all sheep in your care alive and healthy. May face dangers from outside forces that are stronger than you. Experience not required, but every little bit helps. Hooves-on training provided. Long hours may be required and you may have to sacrifice sleep to make sure the flock survive through the night. A good shepherd will lead his/her flock beside quiet waters and to green grass for grazing. 
Pay: Not much.

Wow. And you thought the job of recruiting Sunday School teachers was hard on the chairman of the Nominating Committee. Imagine being the Human Resource Director for Shepherds-R-Us!

Shepherding is one of the 3 roles of guiding great groups, and as a long time Sunday School teacher in my church, I have to admit, shepherding is not among my natural gifts. I have to remind myself weekly about the importance of caring for the members of my class. If I were to get honest with you, I personally have felt the negative effects on a healthy class when we neglect this area of group leadership. When I first accepted the role of teacher for the class I currently teach (4 years ago), we averaged great numbers of regular attenders and guests every week. I would frequently hear gracious comments about how much the members enjoyed the week by week bible studies. Content was king and we had great content. However, the busyness of my job responsibilities with the State Convention, and the frequency of my having to travel out of town during the week made contacting every member every week very cumbersome. Over time, that responsibility went by the wayside, sacrificed for the promise of great content week by week. Did it work? Not hardly. After several months, class numbers started to plateau, then steadily decline. The only thing that changed was I failed to make a priority to follow-up with every guest and member every week. I fell victim of following bad practices that I made people who attended my Sunday School training clinics promise that they would never do. I failed to practice what I preached.

Then it hit me. I am not supposed to do it all. I needed to develop care teams and care group leaders within my class to do the work of spiritual and emotional care for the members and guests. Those leaders are to be assigned 5-7 members and guests to follow-up with during the week between class sessions. Every member would be contacted every week and prayed for, ministered to, needs discovered and life transformation would be celebrated. Then when we gathered again as a class, reports would be given and even more celebration continued.

If we do the job of recruiting shepherds within our class to share the load of emotional and spiritual care of our members, we will see spiritual transformation take place within our classes. We can’t do it alone, and if we try, it will only lead to frustration. Sheep are still messy and is the job of shepherding can get dirty, but when we share the load, the entire class is transformed.

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Jason McNair

Strengthening Churches Missionary

Utah Idaho Southern Baptist Convention

Twitter: @jason_mcnair